Properties we want to see developed

Wednesday

Jan 6, 2010 at 6:00 AM

...that aren&rsquo;t CitySquare

Jeremy Shulkin and Tim O&rsquo;Keefe

When Worcester Mag launched the Woo-Town Index more than a year ago, we had an in-house joke that has evolved into a promise. We vowed &mdash; and still do &mdash; that the moment a gold-plated shovel is stuck into the ground under news photographers&rsquo; camera flashes to herald the start of the CitySquare project, then we would wipe away all the negative scores the city has accrued in our weekly rating. Fresh start, no questions asked, our virginity restored.

We&rsquo;re still waiting.

But lately we&rsquo;ve been rethinking our attitude, just a little. Perhaps we, like many in Worcester, are a little too obsessed with CitySquare. The Development That Will Save Downtown has become such a fixation that it can deflect our attention from other worthy, yet fallow, properties.

So we&rsquo;ve compiled a short list of some unused properties that are assiduously not CitySquare, but which also can be instrumental in oiling Worcester&rsquo;s economic engine, and asked some local business and municipal leaders to assess their chances of being reborn.

The Paris Cinema

The blue cursive font on the Paris Cinema fa&ccedil;ade hasn&rsquo;t always been there, and neither has the stigma surrounding the building. Eighty-three years ago the Capitol Theatre opened up for business on Dec. 11, 1926, bringing some glitz and glamour to Worcester&rsquo;s downtown.

Designed by architect Roger Garland for the Worcester Capitol Company, the theatre followed an &ldquo;Atmospheric&rdquo; architectural trend at the time with buildings attempting to make patrons feel as if they were in an exotic location, for example Spain, Italy or India.

These theatres were popular around the country, including Worcester, where two others &mdash; Poli&rsquo;s Palace, now the Hanover Theatre, and the Plymouth, now known as the Palladium &mdash; popped up downtown. The idea wasn&rsquo;t just that a show or a movie could be an escape from reality, but the building itself could facilitate that escape, an effort aided by projecting stars and clouds onto its ceilings.

In the 1960s the theatre converted to a two-screen cinema, but left much of the traditional architecture intact.

Eventually, the movies shown became less and less family-friendly, and the building was turned into a full-fledged porn theatre. In 2005 different facets of the city&rsquo;s legal arms engaged in a multi-front effort to close down the Paris, including police stings that led to 22 arrests for men engaging in sexual conduct inside the theatre. The same year, the city&rsquo;s Licensing Board, City Council and Code Enforcement Department converged on the business&rsquo; day-to-day operations, leading to the theatre&rsquo;s shutdown in January 2006.

In July of that same year the owner of the property, Robert J. Hurwitz, sold the Paris Cinema, as well as all other properties between 66-70 Franklin Street and 6-20 Portland Street to Boston-based real estate developers Mayo Group for $1.15 million. Under the name Worcester Commons LLC, the companies have begun converting those buildings into its student village, which has already begun to take shape.

But when Mayo Group, which now owns much of the property on the Franklin Street/Portland Street block, bought the parcel that included the old theatre, it didn&rsquo;t have any plans for a cinematic grand opening.

Mayo Group&rsquo;s Vice President of Development Edward O&rsquo;Donnell says that his company&rsquo;s acquisition of the parcel was &ldquo;purely a defensive investment.&rdquo;

&ldquo;We were investing in the other buildings in the area,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The theatre was attracting people that weren&rsquo;t good for our investments.&rdquo;

50 Franklin St. has really been the centerpiece of that area, O&rsquo;Donnell says. Of the building&rsquo;s 256 rental units he says 95 percent are occupied by a clientele dominated by students and young people. He notes that 60 Franklin is in a similar situation.

But what does all that mean for the Paris? It probably won&rsquo;t return to glamour &mdash; not as a theatre anyway. Citing the city&rsquo;s renovation and promotion of the Hanover Theatre only two blocks away, as well as a deal that would put a 12-screen cinema in the proposed CitySquare complex across the street, O&rsquo;Donnell says that &ldquo;keeping it as a theatre is not in its best use.&rdquo;

Erin Williams, the city&rsquo;s Cultural Development Officer, thinks that despite the stretch, it would be great if the theatre&rsquo;s former glory could somehow be restored.

Calling it a &ldquo;pretty phenomenal place,&rdquo; she believes the building would make &ldquo;a good complement to the Hanover&rdquo; since the Hanover is more performance-based. She sees the Paris coming back as a resurgent 21st century Capitol Theatre, a place with movies as well as 3-D gaming.

But she admits that to do this would take &ldquo;multi-millions&rdquo; of dollars, and she credits Mayo for bringing in a younger crowd and revitalizing the area.

The Paris&rsquo; revival as a theatre is highly unlikely, but there&rsquo;s no set date for it to transform from an empty building into part of Mayo&rsquo;s student village.

&ldquo;Our plans are really unclear&rdquo; says O&rsquo;Donnell. &ldquo;It would be wonderful if we could use the Paris theatre for its original purposes, but economics are almost certainly against it and not what the marketplace would want.&rdquo;

Worcester State HospitalClock Tower

The Worcester State Hospital Clock Tower building stands 250 feet, covers 40,000 square feet, and has a place on the National Register of Historic Places.

The real estate ad practically writes itself. So what&rsquo;s holding up development of this local landmark?

&ldquo;It needs a lot of work, says the city&rsquo;s Director of Economic Development, Tim McGourthy. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a beautiful building, a landmark structure, but it&rsquo;s a difficult one. It&rsquo;s old, seen a lot of decay.&rdquo;

As of now, work is happening to turn the old Worcester State Hospital complex into a brand new psychiatric hospital for the state&rsquo;s Department of Mental Health. The Clock Tower and Hooper Turret aren&rsquo;t being considered for inclusion in the new hospital, but in order for these two structures to be cleared for private development the state has to declare them as surplus property.

Deborah Packard, Preservation Worcester&rsquo;s Executive Director, has been haggling with the state over the futures of the Hooper Turret and the Clock Tower, winning a $200,000 Reuse and Redevelopment Options study by the state&rsquo;s Division of Capital Asset Management. The results of the study have yielded good news, she says, showing that it would be feasible for the property to be developed as a commercial venture.

Right now the structures are being looked at for businesses, and the goal is to combine them for sale as a package with the nearby Hale Building. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s talk about it being office space. It would be great for biotech. Something that will bring jobs to the city,&rdquo; Packard offers.

Another step toward selling off the buildings to a private developer is that they need to qualify for state and federal historic tax credits &mdash; there is some concern with that because of fire damage and the demolition of surrounding buildings. The credit covers 20 percent of the restoration costs for whoever buys the property. &ldquo;In terms of marketing the buildings, that will make a huge difference,&rdquo; Packard says. Even if the buildings don&rsquo;t qualify for the tax breaks this year, they can be considered for credits next year as individual properties rather than as one large group.

Packard insists there have been bites as recently as December, when state Sen. Harriette Chandler facilitated some interest from a developer, whom Packard is reluctant to name. Since the property belongs to the state, Worcester isn&rsquo;t losing any money by having the buildings empty, but clearly development would bring revenue into the city.

McGourthy and Packard are hopeful the buildings can be brought back to life, but they acknowledge it won&rsquo;t be easy. A fire in the 1990s seriously damaged the Clock Tower, and it will take a lot of money to repair it. Says McGourthy: &ldquo;The key is, can we find someone with the wherewithal to invest in it?&rdquo;

Wyman-Gordon property

Hard by Kelley Square, you may notice the enormous fenced-in plot that seems to span all the way to Millbury, but you probably have no clue what&rsquo;s on that piece of property.

Not much, actually. The 17-acre parcel, owned by metal-forging and manufacturing company Wyman-Gordon, has been mostly vacant for years now, attracting little interest from local developers.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a fantastic parcel,&rdquo; says Tim McGourthy. &ldquo;From talking with Wyman-Gordon it appears as if there are 12 acres of land that may be available for use in the future for development.&rdquo;

The company, whose manufacturing plant is located in North Grafton, maintains five acres for its own use, but that leaves a substantial chunk that can be more than just dead space.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s located right near the highway and train station, so it has some positive infrastructure aspect to it,&rdquo; says McGourthy. &ldquo;We could see it having mixed uses.&rdquo;

City Councilor Barbara Haller also sees potential in the parcel that was once discussed as a potential site for a minor league baseball stadium.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s begging for a large-scale redevelopment option,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;But there are also smaller [Wyman-Gordon-owned] parcels like parking lots around the property that are unused and could be utilized for housing or small-scale businesses.&rdquo;

Haller supports any use of the property that would foster employment opportunities for local people.

&ldquo;If Wyman-Gordon decided to expand their operations more, then I fully support that. But if not, I think there should be something there that can provide skilled, well-paying jobs,&rdquo; she says.

Under new mayor Joseph O&rsquo;Brien&rsquo;s administration, there could be a quick call for action regarding the number of unused parcels in the city, Haller speculates.

&ldquo;Joe has said that he&rsquo;s putting together a group that will focus on retaining growing businesses in the city, and also attracting new ones,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;So there could be fast-track action on this issue.&rdquo;

Until Wyman-Gordon finds a buyer, Haller insists the company should be responsible for maintaining the appearance of the property, something she&rsquo;s raised at City Council meetings.

&ldquo;Underutilized land is definitely a negative,&rdquo; she says, &ldquo;especially when it&rsquo;s unattractive land, which the Wyman-Gordon property is. There are ways of not using the land and making it attractive at the same time. Wyman-Gordon is not being respectful of the neighborhood or the city.&rdquo;

Representatives for Wyman-Gordon did not return calls by press time.

As the rehab of the Canal District picks up steam, it would be nice to see things get rolling on this parcel that&rsquo;s roughly the size of eleven football fields, McGourthy notes.

&ldquo;With the $7.5 million the Canal District has for renovations, there&rsquo;s great opportunity for commercial and residential use there,&rdquo; he says.

Worcester Memorial Auditorium and the former courthouse

Worcester&rsquo;s North Main Street area is an odd amalgam of building use and architectural design. The foreboding, windowless AT&T building along with the gray boxy police fotress are situated just south from the old courthouse and Memorial Auditorium. In a weird twist, however, the two grand, historic buildings are the ones that are unused.

The Worcester Memorial Auditorium was built in 1933 and has been used over the years for sporting events, concerts, juvenile court and now as storage space for state records.

In 2007 the city released its North Main Economic Development Strategy, a plan that would try to incite investment in North Main Street, and while there have been numerous proposals for the Auditorium and Old Courthouse, none have stuck.

For the Auditorium &ldquo;the city&rsquo;s goal is to get it out to the private sector,&rdquo; says McGourthy. &ldquo;Different ideas have been floated over the years to look at the potential.&rdquo; As of now, there seem to be three options on the table. One would be to make the building into a cultural district, another is put it to community use as a sort of urban village with mixed commercial and residential space, or to turn it into a small-business incubator, like the Martin Luther King Jr. Business Empowerment Center on Chandler Street.

Roberta Schaefer, President and CEO of The Research Bureau, isn&rsquo;t optimistic. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t even begin to think about what it could be because it&rsquo;s so deteriorated.&rdquo;

She says the problem is in the architecture, where instead of a graded audience floor the Auditorium&rsquo;s is flat, causing obstructed views beginning only a few rows back. To restore it into some kind of performance hall would take millions of dollars just to install the seating that audiences are accustomed to in today&rsquo;s theatres and concert chambers &mdash; not to mention the downtown&rsquo;s already well-served arts scene with the Hanover Theatre and Mechanics Hall.

Whatever the plan, city officials would like the building off their books soon: the FY2010 budget recommended setting aside $121,506 for upkeep, most of it going to electricity and fuel bills.

As for the courthouse, there has been a flurry of suggestions for using the space since it was vacated in 2007. A law school, relocation of the police department and even a marketplace have all been suggested for the building.

Schaefer is optimistic that the City Council&rsquo;s deliberation over the residential use of the area around the former Worcester Vocational School, Boys and Girls Club and Gateway Park could spark growth for the old courthouse, saying that the housing proposals could lead to more demand for retail.

The city would like both properties to go on the market at the same time, but since the city owns the Auditorium and the state owns the courthouse, there can&rsquo;t be any bargain-deal for the two them.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.